Location: TBD
This event is part of the NCSG Fall Colloquium series and is open to the public.
Visiting author Dr. Angela Simms will be sharing insights from her newly published book, “Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia.” Fighting for a Foothold is an in-depth analysis of the fiscal challenges experienced by Prince George’s County and by the suburban Black middle-class and majority-Black jurisdictions, more broadly. The book reveals how race, class, and local jurisdiction boundaries in metropolitan areas interact to create different material living conditions for Americans. Dr. Simms will be joined by NCSG’s own Willow Lung, Ph.D. for a fireside chat.
Dr. Angela Simms is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Barnard College–Columbia University. She examines the political economy of United States metropolitan areas through the lens of suburban Black middle-class jurisdictions’ capacity to garner sufficient tax revenue for maintaining high-quality public goods and services. Prior to academia, Angela served in the federal government for seven years as a Presidential Management Fellow and legislative analyst at the Office of Management and Budget during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations. Angela is co-chair of Columbia Population Research Center’s Working Group on Urbanism and Neighborhoods. She is also on the editorial board of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity Journal.
Willow Lung, Ph.D. is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), and a nationally recognized scholar of equitable community development, urban inequality, economic inclusion, suburban transformation, and urban policy. She is the Founding Director of the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network, a national network of more than 200 organizations that helps diverse small businesses grow and thrive in place. At UMD, she also serves as faculty at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, and is the former director of the Urban Equity Collaborative. Her latest book is The Right to Suburbia: Combating Gentrification on the Urban Edge (University of California Press, 2024).